CHAPTER 4- List of Random Numbers

153 9 15
                                    

HARRY AND GINNY OPENED THE DOOR TO ALBUS'S ROOM AND HANDED LENA A CUP OF COFFEE. Lena was sitting next to Albus, almost half asleep in her chair. She smiled as she took the cup and took a sip of the bitter liquid. Albus was fast asleep for the past four hours in one of the bed in St. Mungo's.

"You know you can sleep, right?" Ginny whispered "Harry and I'll watch over him."

"Thanks, but I'd rather stay awake," Lena replied. Ginny smiled and patted Lena's shoulder.

"That's why we got the coffee," Ginny said "I'd never thought I'd see Albus like this again."

"What happened?" Harry asked. When Lena had informed them, she didn't give a lot of details.

"We were attacked," she answered "Albus got stabbed by a dagger which was poisoned. It was strange though, the person never fired the killing curse. They wanted to kill with the dagger, without magic."

"Who was it?" Harry asked "Any idea?"

"No, he or she wore a mask, I drew it while I was waiting for you," said Lena. She pulled out a piece of parchment with a drawing of a mask which was decorated with intricate designs. Harry's eyes widened. Ginny peered over his shoulder to see. Her expressions matched her husband's after laying eyes on the drawing.

"Is that-" Ginny started to say.

"Yes," Harry replied. Lena eyed them curiously.

"What's going on?" she asked "Does that mean something?"

"It did," Harry said "No one wore this after he was gone."

"Who?" Lena asked.

"Voldemort," Ginny answered "That mask was worn by his followers."

"It's not him," Harry said, firmly "He's dead, for good, and he is not coming back."

"Who's not coming back?" the three of the turned around to see Albus slowly open his eyes and say something "I'm going to be so miffed if you were talking about me." Lena smiled and held his hand, kissing the back of it. Ginny rushed to his side and kissed his forehead.

"You okay there, champ?" Harry asked, gently patting Albus's leg. Albus smiled and nodded.

"Lena saved my life," he said. The door burst open and a woman with red hair and freckles came in, looking worried.

"Albus!" She shrieked, hugging her brother "I'm so happy you're alive! How dare you get yourself hurt again!" She punched Albus in the arm and hugged him again "You are so lucky to be alive right now!"

"I'm... confused, but at least you're here, Lily," said Albus "Where's James? Is he coming?"

"I'm sorry but he can't come," Lily answered "Xavier is not feeling well. He has a bit of a fever." Albus nodded in understanding. His family stayed with him for a few hours until another healer asked them to leave to perform a few more tests on Albus.

**********

Scorpius and Rose visited Albus during lunch time. Lena spent most of her time with Albus and had not left his side since the incident.

"We would have come earlier," said Rose "But some healer said that you had too many visitors.

"That would be my parents and Lily," said Albus "But no matter, you're here now and that's all that matters." Rose nodded and looked at Scorpius. He looked around, looking for something and gave Rose a small, curt nod.

"What's going on?" asked Lena.

"Um... Albus, right after you were attacked and we heard about it from Lena, we went to the area," said Rose, hesitantly.

"Are you mental!?" Albus exclaimed "You could've gotten seriously hurt if the person who did this to me was still hanging around!"

"I know, we know," said Scorpius "We went looking for clues."

"That's the Auror's job," Albus protested "Last I checked, neither of you are Aurors."

"You're going to be glad we went back!" Rose spat "We found this. By morning, when the Aurors would show up there, this would have been blown away by the wind." Rose handed Lena a piece of crumpled up parchment. Lena eyed it curiously.

2,555,22,88,7777/7,666,8,8,33,777 -6
555,33,66,2/3,33,555,2,22,666,88,777 -6
777,666,7777,33/6,2,555,333,666,999 -4
7777,222,666,777,7,444,88,7777/6,2,555,333,666,999 -4
22,2,777,66,2,22,999/777,666,22,444,66,7777,666,66 -3
4,444,555,3,33,777,666,999/555,666,222,55,44,2,777,8 -1
55,444,66,4,7777,555,33,999/777,44,2,222,55,555,33,22,666,555,8 -2
2,555,444,222,33/555,666,66,4,22,666,8,8,666,6 -1
333,777,2,66,55/555,666,66,4,22,666,8,8,666,6 -1
3,33,3,2,555,88,7777/3,444,44,44,555,33 -1
7777,8,88,777,4,444,7777/7,666,3,6,666,777,33 -1
5,2,222,666,22/8,44,666,777,66,33,22,88,777,999 -2
7777,2,555,555,999/6,444,555,555,7777 -6
55,2,777,33,66/7777,2,66,3,666,8,2,555 -2
777,88,7777,7777/9,666,555,333,3 -2
7,33,2,777,555/44,444,555,555 -5
44,2,555,33/4,555,666,888,33,777 -2
555,88,55,33/22,88,8,555,33,777 -3
22,777,444,3,4,33,8/9,777,444,4,44,8 -2
7777,999,22,444,555/8,777,33,555,2,9,66,999 -5
----------
888,444,7777,88,2,555/888,33,777,444,333,444,222,2,8,444,666,66/444,7777/66,33,33,3,33,3/333,666,777/777,33,9,2,777,3
-333,666,777,33,444,4,66/44,666,7,33

"What's that?" she asked.

"We don't know," Scorpius replied "It's just some random numbers. We don't know what they mean."

"It's not phone numbers," Lena said "Why is there a little hyphen after some numbers and why are some of them the same but on different lines?"

"We don't know," Rose replied. They studied the piece of parchment for a long time.

"Maybe we should just give it to the Aurors," said Scorpius.

"No, absolutely not," Albus protested. Everyone looked at him with a shocked expression.

"Why not?" asked Lena "You were the one saying that we should let the Aurors handle this."

"I know, but whoever wrote these didn't use magic," said Albus "If you look at the ink, it's not someone's handwriting and the ink isn't the one we use for school either. This came from... what are those things called, Rose? You know the thing Aunt Hermione told us about. It's like a box, which you tell something with another thing with letters that you press and then it appears on a screen and then a parchment comes out from the little box? I forget what they are called. Dad brought a new one a couple of weeks ago to replace his old one."

"Do you mean a printer?" asked Rose, snapping her fingers "Of course, this doesn't look like it's been hand written!"

"What's a printer?" Scorpius asked.

"It's a muggle device. Like phones," said Lena "If someone used the printer to get these out, then they must have made several copies."

"But what the bloody hell are they?" asked Rose "It's literally just a bunch of random numbers and symbols."

"It looks like a list," commented Albus "Like Lena said, they are not all in the same line."

"Could it be in some sort of code?" asked Scorpius "Like the numbers could be letters. Like one could be the letter A?" 

"I've tried," said Rose "But all I'm getting is random letters that don't make any sense."

"What about a five-by-five tap code," asked Lena.

"No, the numbers go beyond five," replied Albus.

"Maybe we are just trying to make sense of this random piece of rubbish," said Rose "Maybe it's nothing at all."


A/N: Hello!! It's a wonder what boredom and a conversation with your best friend about balloons and injuries could lead to. I probably shouldn't be writing -er, typing during my physics class but it's so boring. Anyway, this chapter is a little boring but it sets the plot so have fun. Please check my grammar and spellings!!

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